Photograph the Game – Ulster Rugby

Ulster Rugby have invited Belfast Photo Festival to host a one off workshop at the sidelines of one of their exciting and fast paced training sessions. You will be developing alongside the teams official photographer, who will work with you to bring out the most interesting photographs, with full access throughout the stadium.Like all Belfast Photo Festival ’Photograph The Game’ workshops, you will learn everything you need to know, from the in camera basics and anticipating the next try, to lighting and angling for the perfect shot of these sporting champions.Equipment: You are recommended to bring your own camera, however cameras can be provided on the day.Time: 10am – 1pm

Level: Beginner to Advanced

Venue: Kingspan Stadium

Tickets: £6 per person

Photography Freestyle

Ever wanted to get that perfect action shot? Inspired by Belfast Photo Festival’s exhibition ’Freestyle’, this workshop will help you to capture all the miraculous body moves, slashes, twists and turns necessary for professional BMX and Skate photography.

Capture these urban sports at their best with the guidance of one of the county’s finest urban sports photographers.Learn about:

– Timing

– Composition and perspective

– Techniques to get an impressive shot from easy tricks to hard tricks

– Working with surroundings/spots/skateparks to get the most out of your photos.

This workshop will also introduce you to Northern Ireland’s largest indoor skatepark, where you will learn everything you need to know, from the in camera basics to lighting and angling for the perfect shot.Equipment: You are recommended to bring your own camera, however camera’s can be provided on the day.

Date: Apr 16

Time: 2pm

Ticket: £6 per person

Photograph The Band

Learn how the professionals shoot a live gig by doing it yourself with guidance, advice, hints and tips. Experience a great gig by a major up and coming act while learning professional practice and enhancing your photography skills.

The local band will be performing just for you at your very own private concert.

The workshop includes an on location shoot, where you will also be shown how to approach creating promotional band and performer photographs.Venue: Mandela Hall

Date: Apr 16

Time: 2pm – 5pm

Tickets: £6 per person

Titanic Taster Photography Tour

Become a Titanic inspired photographer for the day, learning tips and techniques, while exploring Titanic Quarter’s maritime heritage.

The Wee Tram will collect you from outside Titanic Belfast and take you on a tram ride in carriages inspired by the tramcars that ran through Titanic’s shipyard. Stops include Titanic Slipways, HMS Caroline, Titanic’s Dock and Pump-House and the Harland & Wolff cranes.

Please wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather as there will be short distances to walk. Parking (pay and display) is available opposite the Drawing Offices.

Olympic Photo-booth

This is your chance to become the sporting champion Belfast deserves. Come along to our photo-booth where you will be kitted out with everything you need to wow your friends with your own winning souvenir photo.

Venue: Titanic Belfast

Date: April 3

Time: 5:30pm – 8pm

Tickets: FREE

The Karate Kid Screening

The film will be followed by an award ceremony, where the winners of the Festival’s ‘Movie Poster Competition’ will be announced and awarded their prizes.

See how a generation of children learned the fundamentals of martial arts by washing their dad’s car, witness how ‘Mr Miyagi’ became a household name, stare in awe and realise that bullies can be beaten with a little help from the East.

Written by Robert Mark Kamen long before he delivered up box office hits Gladiator, Lethal Weapon 3, The Transporter and Taken, and directed by the bloke who made the first Rocky film, The Karate Kid is the black belt of 1980s revivals.

This screening is a partnership between Belfast Photo Festival Youth Edition and Cinemagic.

Date: Apr 30

Time: 3pm

Price: £4

Movie Poster Competition

Ever wanted to design your own movie poster to the iconic 80s film The Karate Kid? Who hasn’t!

We’ve teamed up with Cinemagic Film Festival to bring you a blockbuster competition to do just that and all you need to enter is your mobile phone!

WIN:A Sony DSC-QX10 CameraA pair of tickets to a film at this year’s Cinemagic Film FestivalA Complimentary pass to a workshop or masterclass

Step 5: Share it on facebook/twitter using #belfastphotofestmovieposter

Winners will be announced at a special award ceremony and screening of The Karate Kid (1984) in the Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast, at 3pm on Saturday 30th April. Finalists short listed will be given a pair of tickets to the screening also. To read more and download the app visit www.youthedition.info/competition!

What are you waiting for?

Exhibitions

Boxing

Artists: Larry Fink & Richard Wade

Local boxer Michael McAlister photographer by Richard Wade

The exhibition pairs boxing photographs by Belfast based photographer Richard Wade and American photographer Larry Fink. Fink’s work came out of an assignment to photograph Mike Tyson’s manager Jimmy Jacobs. Wade’s approach is that of “slow journalism,” returning to the same places and shooting them over and over again.

Interviewed about his work for The New York Times, Fink describes how: “I used to listen to the Friday night fights. We were people of the left. Boxing was a symbolic sport for people who were underdogs to come up and prove themselves triumphant and powerful… In the field of boxing, you have unbeliebale purity of intention and innocence, and unbelievable greed, evil, and belligerence, all sitting in the same stew port. It’s a spicy stew. I like spicy stew.”

Larry Fink started taking photographs as a teenager. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern aRT and he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976 and 1979. His work has appeared in top publications such as Vanity Fair, W, GQ, Detour, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker.

Richard Wade studied photography at Ulster University School of Art. He has worked on commissions for a range of clients including the Financial Times, Surface Magazine.

Venue: Titanic Belfast

Date: April 3rd – May 30th

Times: Mon-Sun 10am – 5pm

Price: Free

Freestyle

Artists: Richard Gilligan, Ricky Adam & Charlotte Thomas

An exhibition exploring skate and BMX culture.

Richard Gilligan put down his skateboard in favour of his camera, to spend five years documenting make-shift skateparks built all over the world. ‘It takes time dedication and a great deal of stubbornness to become a skateboarder. Some people have likened it to wild animals building dens in the wild, I really love that comparison.
Ricky Adam describes his approach as “Kinda Haphazard and often out of compulsion. I tend to only photograph things that genuinely interest me. I’ve found thats the way to get the best results.” He has been involved in the D.I.Y. punk community for years as well as being Co.Editor/Photographer for ‘DIG BMX’.

Charlotte Thomas has been a skateboarder since she was 16 and is a regular face in the skateboarding world, presenting a female perspective to urban sport through her work ‘Concrete Girls.’

The photographers have been included in publications including The New York Time, iD, The Last Magazine, Nylon, Monster Children, Lodown and Dazed & Confused.The Independent, Juxtapoz, Obey, Maximum, Rock N’Roll, Trap Magazine, Supra Skateboarding, Breaks Magazine and Girl Skate UK.

Venue: The Dock Cafe

Date: Apr 12-22

Times: Tue-Sun 12pm – 5pm

Price: Free

Other Spaces

Artist: Jo Longhurst

An exploration of the physical and emotional experiences of elite gymnasts through photography, performance and sculptural installation.

The work of the British artist Jo Longhurst makes visible new perspectives on the quest for perfection. Working through active collaboration with her subjects she depicts the passion and determination, as well as the challenges and difficulties facing those who cultivate it. Other Spaces explores the rigors of training and competition to which elite gymnasts subject themselves, and the physical and emotional states they experience along the way. This exhibition explore what is required to produce a perfect performance, gently probing how ideas of perfection shape personal and national identities, as well as social and political systems.

Made in collaboration with British Gymnastics and the International Gymnastics Federation; Gemini Gymnastics Club, Oshawa and Heathrow Gymnastics Club, London.

Generously supported by AIMIA, Art Gallery of Ontario, Arts Council England, Arts Council Wales, Ffotogallery, John Kobal Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, National Media Museum, Mostyn, Pavilion and the European Centre for Photographic Research.

Venue: Titanic Belfast

Date: Apr 3 – May 30

Times: Mon-Sun 10am – 5pm

Price: Free

Tickets are available from the Visit Belfast Welcome Centre on Tel: 028 9024 6609 or call into the centre.